


In Memoriam

by NewandOld, Vaporhan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, BAMF Lance (Voltron), Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, Mentally, Minor Character Death, Out of Character, Pidge is a Bad Friend, Remorseful Team Voltron, Serious Lance, Utter Annihilation of the World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-01 18:42:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11492382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewandOld/pseuds/NewandOld, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vaporhan/pseuds/Vaporhan
Summary: Lance is absent when Team Voltron saves Shiro. The Galra have arrived on Earth and threaten to destroy the planet if the Blue Lion isn't turned over in 24 hours.The Blue Paladin is chosen just on time...to see the destruction of Earth..OR: Lance uses Voltron to exact revenge





	1. The Return

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling really Angsty so I wrote this. was Beta read by my friend NewandOld. Hope you all this long road of Langst and anger!

"Lights out in five! Everyone back to their dorms, now!" Iverson's voice echoes to Lance and Hunk's hiding place.  
  
"You know… we really shouldn't be doing this," Hunk lightly protests.  
  
Lance sighs exasperatedly at this, rolling his eyes at his best friend.

"Iverson said we need to bond as a team. We're gonna grab Pidge, hit the town and- aw crap!" Lance pats himself down and sighs. "I forgot my gear."

He whisper-shouts over his shoulder, running back to their dorm. "You go ahead. I'll catch up."

"Wait! Why would you need gear if we're hitting the-" Hunk pauses when he sees the lascivious look in Lance's eyes. "OH! That gear… never mind."

As Hunk approaches Pidge's room, he arrives in time to see Pidge sneaking out with a giant bag on his back.  
  
"I wonder where he's going?" Hunk mutters aloud. Looking around and seeing no one around, he swiftly begins to sneak after the tiny boy.  
  
Through the darkened hallways and up several stairways, Hunk follows Pidge all the way to the roof. As Hunk approaches Pidge, he sees that the tiny boy is surrounded by unknown tech.  
  
"What are you doing?" Hunk asks over Pidge's shoulder.  
  
"Aahh!" Pidge yells, headphones dropping from his hands.  
  
"And where'd you get all this tech?" Hunk continues to question, ignoring the fright he caused the small boy.  
  
"I built it," Pidge states simply, after regaining his composure.  
  
"You built these?" Hunk asks in amazement, reaching out to inspect the work only to have his hand smacked away.

"Don't touch my stuff!" Pidge yells with a frown.

"But what are you doing here anyway?" Hunk questions again. peering at the tech over Pidge's shoulder.

* * *

"OK, I got my stuff! Let's g-" Lance pauses. The dark corner where they are supposed to meet is empty. "Uh, Hunk? You here?"  
  
He's met with silence.  
  
"Where could he have gone," Lance mutters to himself. "Maybe the kitchens?"  
  
Making his way back into the kitchens is simple enough. All he needs to do is sneak past three pairs of guards making rounds, the commander's lounge and Iverson's office, but Lance makes it through anyway.  
  
"Hah! I'm the best there is at this stuff," Lance boasts to himself, giving himself a pat on his back at the entrance of the kitchens. "Hey Hunk, you were supposed to wai-"

Lance stops talking when he realizes that the room is empty. "Huh? He's not in here either?"

Suddenly the loudspeaker systems came alive with a squeak.

"Attention Students. This is not a Drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: All students are to remain in the barracks until further notice." Iverson's voice echoes through the halls.  
  
"A Zulu Niner? What's that again? Intruder? No, space debris." Lance realizes. He desperately looks around the rooms near the kitchens. "Come on Hunk, where are you!" he groans, worrying his lip.

* * *

"Oh, nothing. Just... Watching the stars," Pidge says, putting on his headphones while chuckling nervously.  
  
Hunk raises an eyebrow and looks at him skeptically. He removes one side of his headphones and squints down at Pidge.

"Since when do you need headphones to watch the stars?" he asks.

At Pidge's blank stare, Hunk sighs exasperatedly. "Come on, you can trust me. We're teammates. What's going on?"  
  
Pidge huffs in defeat. "I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system with this system. I've been picking up alien radio chatter on this an-"  
  
"Wait, ALIENS!?" Hunk cuts him off, not expect such a turn of events. "Seriously?"  
  
"Yes. And they've been repeating one word: 'Voltron'. And according to these readings, the chatter is even crazier now than ever before."  
  
"Attention Students. This is not a Drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: All students are to remain in the barracks until further notice." Iverson's voice came over the Loud speaker.  
  
"Oh puh-lease tell me that was a coincidence and has nothing to do with what we were just talking about." Hunk pleads as he turns to go back to his room. He stops in his tracks when a bright red light begins to shine in the night sky.

"...Pidge? Please tell me that's a meteor."  
  
"It's a ship," Pidge answers excitedly, Looking through his binoculars to get a better look at the falling object.  
  
"Damn it, Pidge!" Hunk blurts out. "Then tell me it's one of ours."  
  
"It's not one of ours!" Pidge exclaims.  
  
"OK then, I'm going back inside." Hunk says as the ship crashes in the desert not too far from the school.  
  
"I gotta have a closer look at that ship. Come on!" Pidge says, already picking up his stuff and rushing off to the crash.   
  
"But wait -"  
  
"You wouldn't leave a teammate to wander the desert alone, would you?" Pidge calls back with a smirk. He doesn't look back, knowing the comment had the desired effect when he hears Hunk running behind him.  
  
"Ugh, you are the worst teammate ever!" Hunk shouts behind him.  
  
"I wouldn't go that far," Pidge yells back over his shoulder. "I don't hold a candle to La-"  
  
"Whoa, the Garrison is here already?" Hunk comments, surprised. He hunches down behind a rock, pulling Pidge down as well. "We can't get past all those guards!"  
  
"Maybe not, but they set up a camera feed. I bet I can hack it!" Pidge declares. He pulls out his homemade computer and proceeds to type away for a few tense minutes.

With a sound of triumph, Pidge waves Hunk over from his worried pacing. "I'm in! Look!"

"No way! Is that Shiro?" Hunk bends down to get a better look at the screen."I thought he was dead! What happened to him? He looks so different."  
  
"Where's the rest of the crew?" Pidge questions, shoulders tense as he wordlessly turns up the audio.  
  
"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Iverson questions the struggling figure on the bed.  
  
"I don't know. Months? Years, maybe?" Shiro shakes his head. "That doesn't matter. Aliens are coming! They're looking for a weapon called Voltron!" Hunk and Pidge gasp at the familiar name. "We have to find it first and save our planet or they'll destroy us!"  
  
"Sir, it appears his arm has been replaced with a Cyborg Prosthetic." A technician states with wonder, ignoring Shiro's distress.  
  
"Put him under." Iverson commands. "He's spouting nonsense and we don't know what that thing can do. Nothing's more dangerous than a crazy man with a weapon."  
  
"What? Wait, no. Don't put me under! I'm not crazy! They're coming!" Shiro cries in desperation, fighting the technicians as long as he could.  
  
"...They didn't ask about the rest of the crew." Pidge comments, bewildered.  
  
"They're not even listening to what he has to say." Hunk says, angered. "Some way to treat a legend."  
  
"It doesn't matter if they're not listening to him. We heard him and we're gonna save him." Pidge declares, beginning to pack away his computer.  
  
"What?" Hunk asks, surprised by the sudden decision.  
  
"Besides, we know that what he's spouting isn't nonsense. Voltron and Aliens are real." Pidge reminds Hunk.  
  
"Yeah I get that, but are you forgetting all the guards down there? We'll never get past them!" Hunk says, gesturing down to the tents below.  
  
Just as the words left Hunk's lips, there was an explosion to the far left of the make-shift excavation site. The Garrison-issued vehicles left the site in droves to investigate, leaving the excavation site close to empty.  
  
"Well, looks like that's our cue."


	2. The Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and the Others escape from the Garrison. Lance is worried.

"What was that!?" Hunk exclaims, surprised.

"That was a distraction," Pidge states, matter-of-factly.

"How could you have possibly done that?" Hunk inquires, completely and utterly flabbergasted.

"I didn't," Pidge says, still staring into his binoculars. "He did."

"Who?" Hunk asks, trying to snatch the binoculars from his hold, but dragging Pidge up as well in his haste. "No way!" Hunk gasps, softly, seeing a raven-haired male jumping off a hoverbike to run towards the tents. Dropping the binoculars, Hunk begins to run down the hill.

"What? You know him? Who's he?" Pidge asks running after him, trying to keep up.

"Keith!" Hunk replies simply, over his shoulder, like that one word would clear all confusion.

Pidge pauses for a second and stares at Hunk's retreating form before he catches himself and continues to make his descent down the hill. "Who's Keith?" he asks.

"You know that 'best student' that flunked out and moved Lance up to fighter pilot?"

"Yeah!?"

"That's Keith."

"That's Keith?" Pidge asks, stunned. "But he's so... small."

"Hah, you're one to talk," Hunk fires back.

"Yeah, but I mean, he was the best pilot in your class? It doesn't seem plausible." Pidge argues.

By this time, they reach the excavation site and sneak their way into the quarantine tent that held Shiro. As they make their way inside, Keith is making his way out with a passed out Shiro over his shoulder. Seeing a potential threat, Keith raises his dagger, ready to attack.

"Whoa, hold it buddy. We're friendly, we're here to help you rescue Shiro," Hunk intercedes before things get out of hand.

The dagger doesn't move from its battle ready position. Pidge shifts a little to hide behind Hunk.

"Who are you?" Keith asks, bluntly.

"I'm Hunk. We were in the same class? And this is Pidge, he's my and Lance's comm specialist in our Garrison team." Hunk introduces, shifting a little to show Pidge.

"Lance?" Keith asks, pulling down his bandana to reveal a puzzled face.

"Yeah, you know, your rival?" Hunk only receives a blank stare. "Lance McClain?" Still nothing. "Tall, Hispanic, blue eyes?" A spark or recognition appears in Keith eyes.

"The Cargo Pilot?" Keith questions.

Hunk's left eye twitches so slightly that both conscious parties miss it. "Yeah, him."

"Oh." Is all Keith says with an awkward shrug.

"Guys, we don't have time for this," Pidge says as she pulls on Hunk's sleeve. "The Garrison professors could be back any minute now."

True to his statement, the distinct sound of tires crunching rock is heard in the distance and the trio hurry out of the tent and onto the Keith's hoverbike.

"Here. Hold him while I drive," Keith commands, giving Hunk the unconscious man while he starts the bike engine. He checks that Hunk and Shiro are settled and speeds away in the direction he came.

"Wait, where are we going?" Hunk questions as they speed down the rocky terrain.

"They're catching up!" Pidge cries, looking back at the vehicles behind them.

"Hunk, lean left," Keith orders and Hunk does so, only to yell in surprise as the bike shifts a tad too far. With a nervous laugh at the close call, Hunk looks behind to see that the swerve had caused two of the Garrison vehicles tailing them to collide into each other.

"Oh wow! Professor Montgomery just got wrecked by Harris!" Hunk exclaims. "Oh no, wait, he's good."

"Hunk! Left!" Keith shouts from the front and Hunk complies, albeit a little more carefully. This rids them of a third tail that goes spinning to the right.

"Whoa, this is awesome!" Hunk exclaims excitedly. "And I never like these situations- Wait. Is that a CLIFF!?"

"Yep," Keith simply replies while revving the engine so they'd go faster.

"Wait, no! I don't know how I feel about this!" Hunk yells, grasping for handholds as he tries to contain his nausea.

"Are you insane!?" Pidge accuses as they approach the cliff.

"Just trust me," Keith says, ducking down to the handlebars.

"I don't even know you!" Pidge retorts before screaming as they begin their free fall. Hunk and Keith join in, one in terror and the other whooping with excitement.

The Garrison vehicles screech to a stop behind them, not daring to attempt the drop.

* * *

When Lance opens his eyes the next morning, he sees that the sun is just about rising. Looking across the room, he sees Hunk's bed, still made up from the previous morning.

"Hunk still isn't back yet? Where could he be?" Lance says with a worried sigh. He pulls out his phone to text Hunk again, before he realizes that he's going to be late for his morning Physical Training class if he wants to finish his daily morning routine. Lance hurriedly begins to get ready, checking his phone every few minutes for an answer from Hunk.

When he's finished showering, brushing his teeth and making his daily call to his family, it is almost 7:25 with still no answer from Hunk, much less any other sign of him.

"I hope he doesn't miss his morning classes. His record is squeaky clean." He mumbles to himself, clutching his books a little tighter to his chest.

Lance goes through his entire morning schedule and hasn't spotted Hunk anywhere. Not in any classrooms, not in the hall nor now, in the cafeteria. He knows his best friend, and Hunk never misses lunch.

"Something's wrong," Lance murmurs worriedly, when lunchtime is halfway through. Swiftly, he turns to the nearest officer he could find, only to wince when it just happens to be Commander Iverson.

Iverson is talking lowly to Professor Montgomery, who is limping his way after him down the hall. Lance flit his eyes over Professor Montgomery as he walks past him to get to Iverson, noting the bandages all around his left arm, head and leg.

"--can't believe you lost him," Lance overhears Iverson's quiet words, but he pays it no mind in his haste to tell him of Hunk's disappearance.

"Excuse me, sir." Lance interrupts.

"Not now cadet," Iverson waves him away, turning back to Professor Montgomery. "Montgomery --"

"But sir-," Lance interrupts again, squashing down his fear of the officer.

"I said not now!" Iverson repeats himself.

"It's importa-," Lance never gets to finish as he is cut off my Iverson again.

"Listen, McClain," Iverson points a finger in Lance's face, dragging out his name like something disgusting. "You're already a failure of a Fighter Pilot. Why don't you stop bothering me and go foul the atmosphere somewhere else!"

Lance swallows thickly, mouth opening and closing as he tries to respond.

"Do you even know what that means, cadet?" Iverson huffs out a derisive laugh, gesturing a hand up and down at Lance's frame. "It means to take your skinny ass and your fat ass friend to your next class and don't bother me until you're both in decent physical shape. I don't have time for failures."

Lance pushes down the quivers of shame and outrage, protesting for the sake of his friend. "But --"

"Are you deaf, kid?" Iverson leans his large frame over Lance's quailing one. "You have ten seconds to get out of my sight or you're expelled!" Iverson points down the hall. "Go!"

Lance hurriedly run-walks back to the cafeteria, head bent down to hide his face from the other students who happened to see the altercation. _My best friend is missing, you jerk_ , he thinks to himself as he retreats.

* * *

Keith and Shiro enters the shack, Keith ignoring Pidge and Hunk to walk up to a cloth mounted on the wall. With a flourish he pulls it down, revealing a board with a large map with a circle drawn around a certain area, surrounded by diagrams and some paper notes with squiggly lines.

"What's all this?" Shiro asks first, tilting his head to peer at one of the notes on the side.

"I'm not really sure myself. All I really know is, after I got expelled from the Garrison, I-"

"You were expelled!?" Shiro exclaims in disbelief. His brows come together into a deep frown. "How? Why!?"

"Yeah I got expelled..." Keith admits sheepishly, but quickly adds a reassurance at Shiro's expression. "--But that's not important right now."

Shiro crosses his arms and Keith knows this isn't the end of this conversation. After throwing a glare at Hunk and Pidge quietly chuckling in the corner, Keith turns back to the board.

"After I got booted, I found myself drawn to this place… like there was something here I was supposed to be looking for. Or that I was supposed to find? I don't know."

"Something like what?" Shiro questions, unconsciously drawn to the map again.

"I don't know," Keith explains, frustrated and exasperatedly waving at the board. "But I'm pretty sure that what ever it is, it's in this vicinity, right here." He points to the circled section of the map. "There are a lot of caves in these parts that all have paintings that tells the story of a blue lion. They're not all the same, but I followed whatever clues I could and it told me of some arrival -- that was yesterday." Keith turns to address Shiro. "And that led me to you."

"...Woah," Pidge breathes, eyes sparkling. "This is wicked cool."

"Wait a minute, that mountain range kinda look familiar... Kinda like a Fraunhofer line." Hunk realizes out loud. At the blank stares he gets from both Keith and Shiro, Hunk sighs and turns to dig into Pidge's bag.

"Hey! What are you doing!" Pidge protests.

"Last night I was going through Pidge's bag looking for candy and I ended up reading his diary." Pidge let out an indignant 'You what!' but Hunk pulls out a brown book and continues to speak, ignoring him. "And the repeating series of numbers he copied down… the ones from the alien chatter? Yeah, it looks like it'll create the same Fraunhofer line. If I'm not mistaken -- and I don't make that many mistakes -- that map is the graph version of these numbers."

"OK...?" Keith crosses his arms, looking a little unconvinced. "But we still don't know what a frown-whatever is."

"It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element," Hunk explains, not looking up from drawing. He glances up at three avid faces, and shows them the half-done sketch of the graph. "The thing is, this element doesn't exist on earth. Which means -- " Hunk hands over the finished graph to Keith and looks around the shack. "I can build a Geiger counter and track it down to it's exact location," Hunk glances at Keith again. "Er, that is, with permission from the shack owner?"

Keith looks impressed, and gives a nod. Before Hunk can look around for materials, Shiro pats Hunk on the back.

"Nice work… Uhh," Shiro's eyes widen, realizing they never introduced themselves.

"Hunk, the names Hunk. And I'm sure you've already guessed, that's Pidge." He says pointing at the small boy next to him. Hunk's eyes glint mischievously, then digs into Pidge's backpack again.

"Oh, and this," Hunk pulls out a framed picture. "This is his girlfriend! Isn't it cute? She's even shorter than he is."

"Give me that!!" Pidge screams, tackling Hunk to the ground. Everyone missed the hint of recognition on Shiro's face at the picture, too caught up in the fight.

"Guys," Shiro gently admonishes, picking Pidge up off of Hunk. "We should get started right away."

"Yeah, probably should," Hunk agrees, brushing himself off. He pulls out his phone, and sighs. "Yikes, my phone's dead. Pidge, give me your phone, man. Lance must be worried out of his mind."

"NO!!"


	3. The Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang discovers something Amazing!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay guys. I was really busy over the past week

"What? Why not?" Hunk asks, bewildered at the animosity in Pidge's response. "You know how worried Lance can get. He's worse than a mother hen."  
  
"I don't care! If you call Lance, you'll tell him about this," Pidge says gesturing to Shiro, Keith and board. "And I do not want him messing around my stuff or distracting us from getting things done. Besides, you know Lance, he likes to brag. There's no way we can trust him to keep this a secret." He finishes with a huff.  
  
"C'mon, give him some credit! He could really be helpful." Hunk defends. "You don't know Lance like I do; the dude's pretty insightful." Hunk implores. "This one time I-."  
  
"We don't care about some one time that he helped you out." Surprisingly, it is Keith who says this. "From what I can remember, that guy was annoying. I mean I couldn't go a day without him challenging me to some ridiculous contest."  
  
"But wouldn't more people be better for us to figure out what's going on?" Shiro asks, looking around the room at Keith and Pidge. "You know, 'two heads' and whatnot?"  
  
"Trust me Shiro, you do not want to deal with him." Keith says staring into Shiro's eyes, stressing his words with a deep frown.  
  
Shiro eyes both Keith and Pidge's resolute stares and sighs. "Well I guess if both of you have that opinion, it outweighs Hunk's." He turns to Hunk apologetically. "Sorry, but majority rules. You can't tell your buddy about this."  
  
"But there are four of us here," Hunk points out. "You're seriously telling me, you're taking their side? You don't even know him… THEY don't even know him!"  
  
"Well, maybe you're a little biased because you knew him for so long." Shiro reasoned. "And although we can use all the help we can get, we do need to keep it down low from the Garrison." Shiro concludes firmly.  
  
Hunk stares at the other three occupants of the small shack in disbelief. He can't believe what he is hearing.

He had no idea up that Pidge hadn't had a favorable opinion of Lance. Yes, Hunk himself was annoyed by all those times Lance messed up in the simulator, but they all did that. Lance even planned for a team bonding trip last night! Yeah, it got him in this situation and Pidge didn't know about it, but Pidge had declined countless offers before so he must have some idea of how much Lance cared. 

Hunk gives a disgusted scoff. He expected Keith to maybe have an objection about wanting to inform Lance, as he witnessed the whole one-sided rivalry full of Lance's overbearingness. But Pidge? Why would Pidge even think so lowly of Lance? He took the brunt of Iverson's ire just this morning when it had been their fault, not Lance's…  
  
"Fine!" Hunk grumbles, throwing up his hands. "I promise I won't tell Lance about this, but only because Shiro asked me to and I want to get to the bottom of this 'Voltron' thing as soon as possible." He turns and slowly shakes his head at Pidge, pointing an accusing finger. "You, on the other hand, need to re-evaluate everything Lance has done for you."

He turns and walks away, trying his best to bury the ugly anger and sense of injustice he feels for the sake of his best friend.

* * *

It didn't take long for Hunk to finish building the counter and soon the quartet find themselves before a series of rock formations that were near identical to the Fraunhofer line Hunk drew earlier.  
  
The four looks around the formation with incredulity and awe, before Shiro breaks the silence. "Well… this is sort of…" he pauses to cough before finishing. "Creepy."  
  
"I'm getting a reading." Hunk speaks up, going in the direction the readings were coming from. The three others follow behind him.  
  
They soon find themselves in a cave with walls covered in blue markings, always depicting a lion.  
  
"Oh wow! There are blue lion markings in here." Pidge exclaims in excitement, running up to one to analyze it.  
  
Shiro also approaches one and uses his cybernetic arm to brush some dust that were covering the bottom of the painting. Immediately, the marking lights up, followed by all the others in the cave. More markings start to glow from hidden crevasses of the cave, including one on the floor they hadn't noticed.  
  
Without warning, the floor collapses under them, and the group yells as they fall down through the darkness into a natural water slide, landing unceremoniously in a pool of water at the bottom with several loud moans.  
  
"Ow?" Groaning, Keith stands and rubs his head."Well, that's new." He says with a pained grimace as he checks over himself for injuries, still somewhat in shock from the adrenaline rush he had while falling down the slide.  
  
"Whoa! Guys!! Look at that!" Hunk exclaims, pointing at the soft blue glow straight ahead.  
  
Turning to meet Hunk's line of vision, Keith, Shiro and Pidge gasps.

Before them was a giant robotic blue lion. It sat in the middle of a glowing stylized circle carved into the ground with what appeared to be a large force field wrapped around it in a protective sphere. Its yellow eyes pulsed once before going back to its dull state.  
  
The four carefully walked up to the machine.  
  
"This must be the 'Voltron' the aliens are looking for, right Shiro?" Pidge hesitantly breaks the silence.  
  
"I… guess so." He replies, raising his hand to place it on the shield. The shield glows faintly, and lets out a small pulse where it was touched, but the ripples fade away and reinforces itself in a calm sphere again.  
  
"How do you think we're gonna get through this?" Keith questions to no one in particular. He copies Shiro and places a hand on the force field, only for it to react in the same way.  
  
Pidge hums at the response and turns to the former star-pilot. "Shiro, what did you do to make the carvings glow up there in the cave?" Pidge asks.  
  
"Well, nothing really… I just touched it and it glowed." Shiro replies, eyes furrowed in concentration. He shrugs. "I don't think I did anything strange."  
  
"We have to find a way into this!" Keith begins pacing around the force field animatedly, tapping at different points to see if any more pulses appeared.

The sudden restless energy from one of the quietest of the quartet catches the others off guard enough that they share a look amongst themselves.  
  
"Don't worry Keith, we will. We have four heads here and I'm sure at least one of us will figure it out." Shiro says, putting a steady hand on Keith's jumpy shoulder.  
  
"About that. Can we not do that today? It's getting late and Pidge and I need to return to the Garrison." Hunk says as he straightens from poking the force field. "And I have to make sure Lance isn't worrying himself to death over us." Hunk steps away from the force field, clearly ready to go back.  
  
"Hunk's right," Shiro agrees, giving Pidge a pointed look at the reluctance on his face. "It's late. We should call it a day, go home, and get our thoughts together."  
  
"Yeah, umm, another thing," Hunk interjects at the edge of the pool they landed in. "How are we getting out of here?"  
  
The four of them all look around to see that the only way out was the way they came in.

"...Yikes." Pidge mutters, looking up at the sharp incline of the slide they came through.

"I… don't know how we'll get out of this." Shiro admits, looking up helplessly at the lip of the slide that was several feet above the furthest he could reach. "Anyone think to bring some kind of rope?"

Everyone pats down their pockets hopefully, but between Pidge's headphones, Hunk's numerous candy wrappers (no candy, of course), and Shiro's rolls of bandages, it looked like they would be stuck in the cave for a long while.

When they turn to Keith for his contributions, he scratches his neck. "Erm. I have a knife?"

"Let's see it," Shiro says grimly. "We can make a short rope with the bandages and -- oh."

The knife Keith pulls out is a lot smaller than what Shiro imagined, and doesn't look like it would win a fight between a rock.

  
Just as they are wondering what to do next, now that all hope seemed to be lost, a beam shoots out from the stylized circle beneath the blue lion towards the pool of water. The water begins to glow and flow back up the slide they came down on, before it starts to take on an angular shape and freeze with a crackle, forming jagged steps that go up all the way into the dark hole. The glow diminishes and the beam retracts into the circle under the blue lion.  
  
"Whoa." Is all Hunk can say, mouth slack as he looks between the lion and the stairs, trying to determine which was cooler just now.  
  
"That's amazing!" Pidge exclaims, eyes sparkling at the technology that would be involved in creating ice in seconds with only light, which was definitely going against some kind of natural law, right?  
  
"Wait. It can hear us?" Shiro wonders, turning back to blue lion and tapping gently on the force field. "What are we supposed to do? How do we get past the force field?" he asks the lion. He receives no response, not even a pulse on the field when he touches it.  
  
"I don't think it's gonna answer us, Shiro." Keith says. "Let's go and come back after more research and equipment." He throws out, clearly in a hurry to return to the shack.

Hunk is already climbing the stairs carefully, and Keith follows, being extra careful to test each step after the big teen.  
  
Shiro turns to stare back at the lion a tad second longer before nudging a furiously muttering Pidge, taking notes in his notebook, to begin walking ahead of himself up the ice stairs.

* * *

The group arrive back at the shack a while later, still chatting about what they'd just discovered.  
  
"I can't believe that was down there all this time! I wonder how long it's been there." Pidge says, speculatively. Hunk stops at the entrance of the shack.  
  
"Pidge and I are gonna go back to the Garrison. Lance has definitely popped a blood vessel by now." Hunk says, grabbing Pidge's collar as he tries to escape into the shack. "You guys should definitely hide out here since, you know, Shiro is MIA and you 'kidnapped' him." He gives a pointed look at Keith, to which Keith just shrugs.  
  
"We'll definitely be back tomorrow to brainstorm how we could possibly get into the Voltron" Pidge adds, voice muffled in his collar as he gives up fighting Hunk's strong grip.  
  
"Good night, guys." Shiro says with a nod in agreement. Keith just waves them off without looking as he heads back into the shack without another word. Shiro watches the two teens for a few seconds before following Keith back inside.

Keith is already making notes on the conspiracy board when Shiro makes his way inside. Shiro clears his throat, causing Keith to turn to look at Shiro, only to stiffen into attention when he sees the older man's expression.

"So…" Shiro begins, arms crossing. "About this expulsion?"

Keith swallows loudly in the pregnant silence.

* * *

A hooded figure walks into a large spacious room with nothing except a large imposing throne with the backdrop of the multitude of stars shining in alien constellations. The figure approaches the throne purposefully, and the large, armored person sitting on the throne turns towards the figure.

  
"I have located the Blue Lion." The hooded figure announces after a slight bow, hint of malicious joy in her voice.  
  
The armored being on the throne smirks, showing an impressive set of fangs in the ominous purple light.

**Author's Note:**

> So What do You guys Think? I'd love to have feedback on this. I plan to write all the way through S2 and S3 when it's released.


End file.
